


Making History

by TerresDeBrume



Series: Prismic Fight [1]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-03
Updated: 2013-02-03
Packaged: 2017-11-28 01:29:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/668712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony usually never watches the Oscar ceremony, but as a Powered, he’s really glad he did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Making History

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to be uploading a bunch of stuff I never crossposted from my Tumblr in the upcoming days so, don't mind me (too much xD)

The applause dies down as people start realizing what everyone in front of their TV can see: nobody is climbing onstage.

There is no tall red-headed silhouette striding amidst the red seats, no toothy grin directed at the audience. The cameras pan the whole room, actors and actresses and directors twist on their seats, crane their necks to look around, but that doesn’t change a thing.

Loki Laufeyson is not there.

 

The crowd is humming with surprise, Tony can make it out even from where he is sitting at the dinner table –alone with Jarvis, as usual. They’ve been dining together since before Howard died.

On the screen, Moira McTaggert is trying to get the ceremony back under control and on its planned trail. For a moment, it looks like she’s going to try and have people move forward, when her expression changes, going from awkward to relieved:

 

“Ah,” she exclaims, “there he is!”

 

And indeed, there is Loki, camera zooming in on his face, jaw clenched and gaze hard, until he reaches the stage and it looks like he’s letting out a sigh. He adjusts the microphone to his height and straightens his tie, before he clears his throat while someone disappears backstage to retrieve his statuette.

 

“To be honest I never expected to win this so I don’t really know what to say, I….”

 

There’s a pause, and Tony watches as the camera follows the actor’s gaze to the deep end of the room, where something is shining pink… something that looks like a woman, and disappears from the screen very quickly.

 

“Actually,” Loki says, “that was a lie. I know exactly what I want to say.”

 

His body is straight, his tone is grave, and a hushed silence falls on the dining room, both Tony and Jarvis setting their cutlery down to listen better –something big is happening, they can feel it.

 

“Everybody here knows that I am Powered, but our society is made in such a way that I do not believe many of you know what it means. Tonight, I want to tell you what it is to be me.”

 

The audience gasps –or maybe Jarvis does, Tony isn’t sure.

 

“I am a class three telekinetic, meaning that I could have lived a mostly ordinary life –although not without a few twists. However, I am also a class seven telepath. In fact, I am  _the_ class seven telepath, as the grade was actually created for me.”

 

Loki’s voice is clear, collected, and especially articulated. The crew can’t stop the ceremony from airing and he knows it, he is taking full advantage of it. Tony mutters something about him being a clever bastard, and Jarvis hushes him as he migrates toward the couch.

 

“Like all Powered of class four and above, I was sent at age ten to ‘an aptly equipped’ boarding school… which is, really, a detention camp. We were taught, yes. Biology lessons taught us that we were freak, that we were abnormal. History lessons told us that people like us always became criminals or good for nothing parasites –unless they were taken to a camp like ours, in which they were nothing at all. We were offered few options for our education, mostly jobs nobody else wants to do. We were –and still are- placed under curfew. I was thirty when I stayed out after nine for the first time. Every day of my life, I had to wear what the government calls ‘Braces’ -but we call them chains.”

 

He pulls on his sleeve to reveal a dull grey bracelet with a green light –the signal that he is allowed to be out. Tony’s presently shines purple: he must be inside, but is allowed to be awake… He knows that in the camps, his chains would shine red, for lights out.

 

“In order to be allowed here tonight, I had to spend no less than twelve hours in registration offices where nobody wanted to believe what I could do, or simply that I had an actual job.” He gives a humorless chuckle. “To be fair, it is true that we are not allowed a lot of occupations. Then, as if it wasn’t humiliating enough for someone my age to be asking permission to stay out, I had to spend the past three hours at security checks. I was collared,” Loki pulls his necktie down to reveal a kinetic dampener, gleaming golden in the light. “And gloved. I was put to wait in a closet for no reason except that I ‘can’t be for real’. I heard men and women call me a freak, and one even threatened physical violence if I dared to read his thoughts.”

 

Tony is so tense, he feels like he’s going to explode if anything touches him now. The camera has zoomed in on Loki’s face, with two windows showing the crowd, and the face of the woman who shines in the background. They look shocked, floored, awed or hopeful in turns, and tony can’t help but feel himself echo their expressions, heart hammering against his ribcage.

 _Maybe_ , he thinks,  _maybe tonight I’ll be proud of that damned stone._

Photosynthesis and empathic chromatic lights, the doctors call it. Tony knows his ability, although only a class two, is the only thing keeping him alive, and also one of the biggest bane of his existence. This is why he was so interested in Laufeyson’s career. When the  _Hollow Crown_  studios released the news that they’d picked an unknown actor to play the main role in their latest production opposite Thor Odinson, Tony was hooked. He’s not really a movies fan, usually, but that was the first time he’d heard of a Powered being offered such a role, the first time a Powered landed a role in a large audience film.

 

In fact, that’s the first time he’s heard of a man who is openly Powered did anything significant.

 

“I have known this kind of behavior all my life. I have been told where to go and where to stay, what to do, what to say, what to want. I am tired of that. I am tired of my government treating me like a child at the best of times. I am a man grown. I am an adult and a human being, with as much right as you do. And although a lot of my friends at the camp are eagerly waiting for me to bring an Oscar, I cannot accept it so long as it is given to me  _in spite of what I am._ ”

 

The room explodes in cheers and protests all at once, people rising from their seats as they come out of their stupor and remember how to breathe. Jarvis’ grip on Tony’s hand is hard enough to bruise, and Tony almost fears he’s going to break his adopted father’s bones.

There are tears rolling on his cheeks as Loki Laufeyson bows to the public and climbs down the stairs toward the woman shining in the back.

 

“He will need support,” Jarvis says as their TV screen is invaded with an impromptu set of advertisements, “from outside his camp.”

“He’ll get it,” Tony promises.

 

His right hand goes to the sphere in his chest, clutching at the cotton of his t-shirt where the white of joy is shining.

Loki Laufeyson  _will_ get his support.

 

(The following month, Tony poses with Loki on the cover of the New York Times magazine, with their Braces in full view of the objective.)


End file.
